Bills ready for a 'physical' week with the Steelers

Buffalo quarterback EJ Manuel (3) is familiar with head coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who the Bills will conduct a pair of shared practices with this week in advance of Saturday’s preseason game between the two teams.
(Photo:
Kevin Hoffman
,
USA TODAY Sports
)

Story Highlights

Rain washed out Tuesday's practice at St. John Fisher.

The Bills departed for Pennsylvania on Tuesday for two shared practices with the Steelers.

Buffalo faces Pittsburgh in a preseason game on Saturday at Heinz Field.

With two sure-to-be physical practices looming against the Pittsburgh Steelers, it probably wasn't such a bad thing for the Buffalo Bills to cancel Tuesday morning's practice at St. John Fisher College.

Heavy overnight rain and the threat of more throughout the morning prompted coach Doug Marrone to nix the workout. Instead, the Bills went through a walk-through in the gym, then had meetings and weight-lifting sessions before departing for Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where the Steelers' training camp is located.

Of course, as it turned out, most of the practice would have been conducted in mere overcast skies with only an occasional sprinkle, and it could have been held on the turf field, which would have been less slick than the grass field.

But again, the extra rest should be beneficial given the upcoming hectic schedule.

"Yeah, it couldn't come at a better time knowing that we're about to go out there and it's going to be pretty physical down there," said running back Fred Jackson. "They're a team that prides themselves on being physical and we're going to go out there and match that. When you're at training camp and you get these unexpected days off, you like it. But it's on us now to take advantage of it when we come back on the field. We've had a couple of days off and then we get right back to work."

The first practice starts at 3 p.m. Wednesday, and Thursday's session is scheduled to begin at 5:30. After a day off Friday, the teams will play a preseason game Saturday at Heinz Field. The Bills will be back at Fisher on Monday for a 6 p.m. practice.

"We're tired of seeing the same people every single day," said safety Aaron Williams. "We get to see where our skill level is against another team and see what people can do outside their comfort level."

Buffalo quarterback EJ Manuel said that he has known Steelers coach Mike Tomlin since his high school days in Virginia — the two are from the same Hampton, Virginia area — and they talked about these combined practices in early July when they saw each other at fundraiser that Tomlin was involved with.

"I met coach Tomlin when I was in high school, he was the head coach for the Steelers at that point and they had given me an award for an accolade in high school that I had gotten," Manuel recalled. "He was there and he gave me a lot of words of wisdom before I went to Florida State. He had worked with (Florida State head) coach (Jimbo) Fisher before at Cincinnati, so he gave me a bunch of info on Jimbo and that kind of stuff."

The ideal scenario for teams working out the kinks comes in the preseason games, but these combined practices are also useful because they can be tailored for each team to work on specific things.

"I'm excited about it," said Manuel. "I know a bunch of teams have already had dual practices with other teams, so I'm looking forward to getting together with the Steelers. (Tomlin) told me whatever look we need as an offense he'll give it to us. It's going to be very competitive, we're going to try and treat it like three days of a game."

Manuel also recognizes that any work that isn't against the same Buffalo defense that he has seen since the spring in OTAs and now training camp is a benefit.

"As a quarterback, I embrace it because the more looks I can get live, the better for me," he said. "The more reps I can get against a defense that isn't our own, because we're not going to play our own guys on Sundays, we're going to play against someone we don't know. I'm just going to take advantage of that each and every day I can. I know our offensive line is excited about it, they can't wait to go against some other defenders, so we're looking forward to it."